Interview: Meaghan Fisher, Award-winning Children’s Author

I am elated to introduce Meaghan Fisher,  an award-winning children’s author.  She delights  her young fans by sharing her love for the written word with enthusiasm.  Meaghan is living the author’s dream by participating in numerous book festivals. Earlier today she made a visit to St. Peter’s Catholic School in Huber Heights, Ohio.

Can you tell me about yourself?

My name is Meaghan Fisher. I am an-award winning children’s author. I have seven titles currently published and one coming this summer. I am a former nanny and substitute teacher. I have two children, a very supportive husband, and a collie named Sadie. All of my books have traditional moral lessons. My hope is to inspire children through the moral lessons in my books.  I believe in inspiring children and their parents to read. My mother always read me books that her mother’s mother read to her as a child and I am trying to bring back those traditional moral stories with lessons that our parents read and learned from.

My books: Sadie the Skunk, Lars the Monkey Flies a WACO Airplane, I Love Ladybugs, Giuseppe’s Famous Pizza Pie’s, Mousekabitz, Tyler the Fish Saves Lake Erie, and If I Could Pull the Moon from the Sky. Coming soon: The Strawberry Festival.

What inspired you to become a writer?

When I was young I loved journaling and writing stories and articles about solving mysteries, but most of all I wrote poetry. I started writing poetry at the age of ten, and that was my love.  I won many poetry contests, and I was published 21 times during my college years. But what inspired me to become a children’s author was: after I graduated college I moved back home and was walking through my new neighborhood in my hometown, and I ran into Linda Gallagher, my former sixth grade English teacher. She asked me what I had been up to, and I told her I wrote a children’s book and how silly the idea was. She begged to see my manuscript and, after she read it (which took a lot of courage for me to let her do, because I think the world of her) she said she loved it and I had to get the book published. From then on, I was writing three children’s books a day. Now I have 180 children’s books that I have written that are not published yet. She inspired me to go the distance, and she knew I would make it. What is truly inspiring to me was that she always believed in me and my stories and loved the lessons I was trying to instill into children. She changed my life, and without her, I wouldn’t be doing what I am doing today.

How long did it take you to acquire the skills to become a writer?

I think practice makes perfect. That is what I always say to kids when I go into schools and they ask that question. So practice, practice, practice. Every day, things are changing, writing styles and how people speak in novels and so forth, so I say: be true to yourself and your goal in what you wish to write and accomplish. Make sure you have a great editor who is also a good friend. And I find that I learn something new whenever I write. Whether it’s a story, essay, or even this interview, there is always something to learn from your writing and grow from every day. If you keep writing every day, then you will have the skills to be a good writer.

 How many books have you written?

I have seven titles currently published, and my eighth book is coming out in June 2015. However, I have 180 books written that haven’t been published yet.

 Some writers go on long walks; others keep a journal, write at a café, or listen to music. What do you do for inspiration and unleashing your creativity?

I spend time with my own children to get inspired. I have always been inspired by children, but having children of my own and reading my stories to them is the best inspiration. I have a daughter who is four and I bounce my ideas and lines I have written in my books off of her to see what she thinks all the time. If she laughs and says, “that’s silly, Mom,” or, “I love it! Can we read it again!” I know I hit a home run.

What are you working on now?

I am currently working with my illustrator, Sandra Burns, on my eighth book, The Strawberry Festival, which I have been asked to write by my hometown in Troy, Ohio, regarding our huge Strawberry Festival that takes place every June. The characters in the book are my daughter Emma Rose and my son Kevin. The story is told from their perspective. My husband and I are in the story but not the main focus, we are just the parents that take them to the festival. However, the story is really about my experiences as a child when I visited the festival every year with my mother.

 Where can readers find more information about you and your books?

You can find more information about Meaghan Fisher at www.meaghanfisher.com, Meaghan’s Fan and Events Page on Facebook (www.facebook.com/meaghanfanpage), and Twitter (@fisher_meaghan).

Books are available through Barnes and Nobles, Books a Million, Amazon.com, and gypsypublications.com.